Another Mary Cain Record Highlights Prefontaine Classic

High school junior Mary Cain has been smashing records, and stealing headlines from adults, since the beginning of the indoor season. Cain, the Bronxville, New York girl who just turned 17, has set national high school records for the mile, two-mile, and 1500 meters indoors and 1500 outdoors, the last a 4:04.62 that gives her an “A” qualifying standard for the world championships in Moscow in August.

But Cain, coached by Alberto Salazar, admitted that what she’d been dreaming about since eighth grade was becoming the first American high school girl to break 2:00 for 800 meters. She managed just that on Saturday at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon, running a 1:59.51 that broke the 31-year-old record of 2:00.07 by Kim Gallagher, who would go on to win Olympic silver and bronze medals in the 800.

Cain accomplished the landmark task in an unusual manner. Her first 400 was a 59.6, quite slow for someone shooting to break 2:00. Salazar, as quoted by ArmoryTrack.com, told Cain, "'Go right to the back [of the pack], hang on, wait until people die and you'll pass half the field in the last half lap.' And that's exactly what she did.” With her usual devastating kick, finding an unimpeded path to the finish line, she was fifth in a race won by Burundi’s Francine Niyonsaba in an American all-comers time of 1:56.72. Brenda Martinez was second in a career best 1:58.18. “I just hope I inspire future kids now," said Cain. "The [2:00] barrier's been broken! We can do it!"

U.S. Olympian Alysia Montano was just ahead of Cain in fourth in 1:59.43. In a gesture that clearly delighted Cain, Montano took her trademark flower and placed it in the younger runner’s hair after the race. “It’s really awesome to see her not succumb to the pressure that everybody’s kind of thrown on her at such a young age,” Montano, who’d won at Pre in 2012, said of Cain in the Register-Guard. “She’s showing what strength and femininity is. That’s what it’s all about. I’m just really proud of her.”

Cain will next run a 5000 at the Portland Track Festival on June 8. If she runs 15:18.00, she’ll have the world championships “A” standard for three events, after getting the 800 mark on Saturday. She seems almost certain to significantly lower the U.S. high school record of 15:48.

The women’s 1500 supplied another all-comers record as Kenyan Hellen Obiri, the 2012 world indoor 3000-meter champion, stormed past teenager Faith Kipyegon to take first by two and a half seconds in 3:58.58. In fifth place, Treniere Moser, who won three USATF 1500-meter titles from 2005 to 2007 and is now coached by Salazar, ran a career best 4:02.85 at age 31.

Asbel Kiprop seemed headed to victory in the Bowerman Mile, and if the lanky 2011 world 1500-meter champion from Kenya was even slightly lackadaisical in the stretch, he paid for it dearly. Silas Kiplagat, the silver medalist behind him in 2011, mounted a furious finish on the outside and Kiprop quite likely never saw him as he stole the race by 5/100ths of a second in 3:49.48. In the deep and fast field, Americans Lopez Lomong and Matthew Centrowitz were ninth and tenth in 3:51.45 and 3:51.79, respectively. Algeria’s Taoufik Makhloufi, the surprise 1500-meter gold medalist in London, was never a factor, placing 12th in 3:52.94.

With a plethora of people who’d run below 13:00 for the distance, the men’s 5000 was pokier then expected. That explained why, on the penultimate lap, things were so tight and crowded that a spectator could fear that one stumble would have taken down eight people. Mo Farah, who’d moved from Friday’s 10,000 into the 5000 because of the after effects of a stomach virus, seemed about to grab a narrow victory when Kenya’s Edwin Soi stormed past several runners and took first in 13:04.75. Farah was next in 13:05.88. Bernard Lagat (13:07.76), Galen Rupp (13:08.69), and Chris Derrick (a personal best of 13:09.04) were fifth, sixth, and seventh respectively.

It was Farah’s first defeat in an outdoor track final since 2011. The Telegraph reported that Salazar, mindful of Farah’s condition, had tried to persuade him to run the mile, in which there would ostensibly be less pressure, instead. But Farah held firm for the 5000.

In Friday night’s 10,000-meter run, Kenenisa Bekele, the world record holder and two-time Olympic champ, “wanted to run 26:50," his manager Jos Hermens told Race Results Weekly. But the pack fell well behind the desired pace early on. Bekele took the lead just before the bell lap and held off his countryman Imane Merga to triumph in 27:12.08. Ethiopia has been choosing its national teams almost entirely based on time lists lately, and Bekele isn’t sure that his effort will earn a selection for the world championships in Moscow.

World record holder Tirunesh Dibaba didn’t get the pace she wanted in her 5000 either, and made intermittent moves to the front to accelerate matters. At the end, she had almost more than she could handle on the final lap from Mercy Cherono of Kenya and just eked out a victory by a half-second in 14:42:01. In ninth place, Kim Conley set a personal best and got a world championships “A” standard with a 15:09.57. Shannon Rowbury, in 11th, missed that standard by 6/100ths of a second with a 15:18.06.

Ezekiel Kemboi, the London Olympic champion, attempted to hold on to his 3000-meter steeplechase lead by moving over into Conseslus Kipruto’s inside lane and blocking the teenager with his arm in the homestretch. Kemboi then attempted to act like he was the offended party, but officials correctly weren't buying that and disqualified him. Kipruto won in 8:03.59. American Evan Jager was in contact with the leaders until some trouble at the final water jump, but his 8:08.60 for fourth, in his first steeple of the year, is just two seconds off his American record, and 18 seconds ahead of where he was at this point in 2012.

If we were Jumper’s World, we’d admit that the most impressive performance of the Pre Classic was actually the 2.40-meter (7'10.5")high jump, the best mark in the event in nearly 13 years, by Mutaz Essa Barshim of Qatar. For a moment there, he looked like he was flying.

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